Chimborazo: climbing volcanoes in Ecuador
The ascent of the Chimborazo volcano is not very technical, but being in the high mountains above 6,000 metres and having to progress through glaciers makes it very difficult. You will need experience in the use of crampons and ice axeIn glacier progression, and here safety techniques also come into play, as well as roping techniques for walking on glacier terrain where a crevasse may surprise us, and of course, in addition to all of this, there is the physical activity at altitude.
Climbing the last 500 metres was incredibly difficult, but not because of the technical skill required. You are short of air, you need that half of the oxygen that has been taken away from you at that altitude. If you're a smoker you're going to wish you'd quit a while ago. It's just hard to make progress up there.
No doubt a great excuse to travel to Ecuador and enjoy its mountains and nature.
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Edward Whymper Shelter
Chimborazo is a "high" mountain, with big rocks and can have weather that changes every minute. As we walked towards the second refuge, we could hear the rocks and ice chunks falling somewhere overhead.
The Edward Whymper Hut is at 5,000m, named after the English mountaineer who was the first to reach the mountain.
We had hot cups of "mate de coca", a tea made from coca leaves - which are also used to make another product, one that is carried up to the nose. We hiked for twenty minutes, my acclimatisation. We ate and I slept for an hour before starting the ascent at eleven o'clock at night.
On Mount Chimborazo
The Chimborazo volcano is in Ecuador. The elevation in the centre of the country and the moderating effect of the Humboldt Current along the coast give the country an almost perfect climate. Good weather almost everywhere, until you get high enough.
The summit of Chimborazo is the farthest point from the centre of the Earth. Our planet swells at the equator, which makes Mount Chimborazo even more important than Everest. It has the distinction of being the closest point to the sun on the planet. Unfortunately, it is also the coldest place in Ecuador.
Climbing Chimborazo, progressing on the glaciers
Paco, my guide, didn't care about the light part of my mountain climbing adventure. He frowned at my sleeping bagThe smallest package I packed was smaller than a football, and weighed less than half a kilo. My backpack It didn't impress him either. Everything was freezing, yet I kept warm. No problems so far.
The glaciers start near the hut, and hiking turned into mountaineering. I put on my crampons. During one of my many breaks - there were too many of them - I noticed that my cheap little thermometer had bottomed out - the temperature was really very low. I wasn't cold, but sometimes I felt exhausted, the moments when I was moving. When I stood still I felt I could run up that hill, which I could see in the distance.
We fought - well, I fought - for Mount Chimborazo, climbing, climbing, jumping crevasses, until I wanted to leave it at 6,000 metres. Of course I would have given up at 5,800, and at 5,000 metres. Paco lied to me and told me that the summit was only fifty metres higher. I wanted to believe him, or the lack of oxygen had scrambled my brain. I started to make progress on the ice again.
The summit of Mount Chimborazo
We reached the summit at dawn. Paco, who looked slow and tired in the refuge, was energetic at 6,263 metres. My friend Joe, a nineteen-year-old from California with borrowed gear and a grin from ear to ear, was waiting for us.
The sky was impressive
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